Chapter 84: The Free and Easy Young Marquis (17)
Huo Xian and his group set off to return to the capital after celebrating the New Year in Wengzhou. According to the calculated time, Marquis Huo should have already arrived in the capital. To prevent Emperor Haoyuan from causing further trouble, the Eldest Princess and Huo Xian decided to go back as soon as possible.
On the way back, Huo Xian didn’t ride a horse. The weather in Wengzhou was even worse, and the Eldest Princess was not a master who mistreated her servants, so everyone was dressed very warmly.
However, cotton was not widely used in this world. The filling for winter clothes was mostly reed catkins and the like, which were light and thin but not warm. Silk floss and animal fur were expensive and generally only affordable for wealthy families.
The carriage swayed unsteadily, and the road was uneven. Huo Xian, a person who never got seasick or carsick, surprisingly found himself getting a little carriage-sick.
But the one who was even more dizzy was Huo Yuan. Psychological problems couldn’t stump Huo Yuan, but physiological ones were beyond his control. Just like the human body’s cycle of eating and excreting, it was unavoidable… Well, not entirely unavoidable. As long as he spent some points, he could get through it peacefully. However, sneaking a peek at his current point balance, he really didn’t have the courage to continue consuming them.
“Huo Xian, can I go ride a horse?” Huo Yuan lay on Huo Xian’s lap, everything in his vision spinning.
“Your legs don’t hurt anymore?” Huo Xian pulled up the blanket that had slipped down.
Previously, when the group rode horses to Wengzhou, Huo Xian, Ning Chen, and Qingzhu were all used to riding. Huo Xian had neglected Huo Yuan, and Huo Yuan was also someone who could endure; even when the skin on his inner thighs was chafed raw, he didn’t utter a single sound. It was also his fault for being negligent. Even sleeping in the same bed, he hadn’t noticed anything wrong. It was only after arriving in Wengzhou, when he intended to use scrubbing his back as an excuse to deepen their affection, that he discovered his injuries.
If those injuries had been left for a few more days, his legs would have rotted. It gave him quite a fright. When he asked Huo Yuan if it hurt, he only nodded and said, “It does hurt, but it feels quite novel.”
Afterward, he even used a series of neurological terms to rigorously analyze the origin of pain. His serious analysis made Huo Xian both angry and amused.
Digressions aside…
“Sitting in the carriage makes me so dizzy and nauseous. I really want to throw up.” Huo Yuan rubbed his chest, feeling that his breathing was quite unsmooth.
Huo Xian looked down, seeing the haggardness and pallor on his face, his heart aching endlessly. “Let me see if the wind outside is still strong.” The carriage window was half open, allowing cold air in to keep the air inside fresh, but it still couldn’t make Huo Yuan feel any better.
Compared to the piercingly cold wind when they set out, the wind wasn’t that strong now, but blowing on the face probably wouldn’t feel good either.
“Huo Xian, come out and ride a horse for a while.” Coincidentally, Ning Chen rode over and called out. Catching sight of Huo Xian opening the window and reaching his hand out, he immediately greeted him enthusiastically. He had also been cooped up in the carriage for a good while. Finding it too stuffy, he came out to ride a horse and get some fresh air.
Huo Xian didn’t hesitate, calling someone to lead a horse over for him. Hearing his instructions, Huo Yuan was dumbfounded. “Just one horse?” Then what about him?
Huo Xian raised his hand and lightly flicked his forehead. “You’ll ride with me.” Although he said they would ride together, Huo Yuan was actually carried horizontally in Huo Xian’s arms. Although the posture was very awkward for Huo Yuan, sitting sideways prevented the injuries on his inner thighs from worsening. Huo Xian was also meticulous, putting the cloak’s hood over him and wrapping his entire body tightly, making Ning Chen’s mouth twitch at the sight.
“Aren’t you afraid the Eldest Princess will see?” Ning Chen couldn’t help but worry for his friend.
Huo Xian said calmly, “She’ll see it sooner or later.”
Ning Chen couldn’t help but give him a thumbs-up. “You’re amazing.” If it were him suddenly bringing a man back to the manor and declaring him his wife, his father would break every inch of his bones and skin him alive. However, he remembered that the Eldest Princess’s temper didn’t seem too good either. Perhaps… Huo Xian just firmly believed that the Eldest Princess couldn’t bear to beat him to death?
“Huo Xian, in the background of this world, men can have three wives and four concubines,” Huo Yuan said.
“Mm, and then?” Huo Xian asked. He had already seen a maid beside his mother’s carriage ahead discover him holding Huo Yuan on the horse, her expression turning greatly alarmed as she reported into the carriage. He guessed his mother would probably look over soon.
Hearing his rhetorical question, Huo Yuan was temporarily speechless. Theoretically speaking, Huo Xian could actually be like the many men in this world, marrying one wife and taking several beautiful concubines. But rationally speaking, Huo Xian was now his boyfriend. According to Huo Xian’s modern way of thinking, he should be faithful to one person until the end. Besides, Huo Xian wasn’t passionate about relations between men and women; he wasn’t the kind of man who thought with his lower body.
His eyes rolled, remembering the websites Huo Xian forbade him from visiting, but he had a stash… After all, they were lovers, and some things only lovers could do.
If Huo Xian knew what Huo Yuan was thinking, he would probably open his little head and give it a good wash. Of course, if Huo Yuan directly put it into practice, he would also be very happy.
As Huo Xian expected, after the maid’s report, the Eldest Princess poked her head out and looked toward the back. With just one glance, she felt her breath catch, her mind going blank for a moment. Then she forced herself to calm down, carefully recalling what she had seen these past few days. The more she recalled, the more startled she became, because Huo Xian hadn’t hidden it at all!
Without a doubt, after Huo Yuan fell asleep and was carried back to the carriage, Huo Xian was called into the Eldest Princess’s carriage.
Facing the Eldest Princess, whose face was comparable to the freezing winter outside, seemingly brewing with anger, Huo Xian spoke first, “Mother, I do not like women.”
The Eldest Princess’s half-brewed anger dissipated by half instantly. The veins on her forehead bulged abruptly, and her voice changed. “What did you say?”
Huo Xian’s expression remained unchanged. He lifted the hem of his robe and knelt before the small table. “Mother, your child is unfilial.”
The Eldest Princess felt short of breath, her vision briefly going dark. But her physical foundation was good, so she didn’t faint and quickly recovered, though her face paled by several degrees. She slapped the table heavily. “After returning to the capital, get married immediately!”
“With Huo Yuan? That is exactly what I wish for,” Huo Xian followed up.
The Eldest Princess’s breath hitched, suddenly feeling the urge to strangle this son of hers to death.
“Mother, I don’t want to deceive you, nor do I want to ruin a young lady’s life.” Huo Xian knew that any ancient mother would find it hard to accept, so he assumed the most sincere posture and said, “You should have discovered it long ago, only you were unwilling to verify it with me.”
In the capital, where the average age for men to marry was eighteen, Huo Xian, already a Ruoguan, had delayed getting married for a long time. Even whenever the couple brought up marriage, he would avoid the topic. In the first few years, the Eldest Princess might have thought her son was rather shy. However, during a Lantern Festival, when she discovered him adeptly chatting with women on the street alongside Ning Chen, she realized she might have thought wrong.
The Eldest Princess had thought her son might have unspeakable physical difficulties, had thought he might have a passion for the cut sleeve, but she was unwilling to admit it, nor did she want to believe it. Even with Huo Xian admitting it personally at this moment, she still didn’t want to believe it.
“Why are you willing to say it now?” The Eldest Princess’s voice trembled slightly, a harsh glint flashing in her phoenix eyes. “Because of Huo Yuan?”
Seeing this, Huo Xian knew she had developed murderous intent, and his face also sank slightly. “Mother, if I hadn’t met Huo Yuan, I might never have confessed to you in my entire life, and I would have never married, living a lonely life.”
“You dare!” The Eldest Princess’s chest heaved violently with anger.
Huo Xian remained silent for a moment, then asked, “Mother, do you want me to marry a wife to continue the family line, or do you want me to have someone to accompany me for a lifetime?”
The Eldest Princess opened her mouth to answer but quickly realized there was a trap in his question. If she chose the latter, then without a doubt, Huo Yuan would be the “person to accompany him for a lifetime” he spoke of.
“You are the only bloodline of the Huo family.” She didn’t jump into the pit Huo Xian had dug.
Huo Xian smiled faintly. “Mother, we haven’t left Wengzhou yet.”
The Eldest Princess was rendered speechless. Wengzhou was the ancestral home of the Huo family. Compared to other aristocratic families, the Huo family was merely a small clan in a mountain village. Over ninety percent of the people in the village were surnamed Huo, all related to one another. Her father-in-law, the late Duke Dingguo, had made a name for himself, but unfortunately, the Huo family lacked ambitious descendants. Furthermore, to avoid arousing the previous Emperor’s suspicion, Duke Dingguo had not promoted the Huo family.
Digressions aside…
Although the current Huo family had no great achievements, there were still people. At the very least, Huo Xian wasn’t truly the only bloodline; he could only be considered the only bloodline under his grandfather’s branch.
The ancients paid great attention to the continuation of bloodlines. Even in the two modern worlds he had once lived in, there were still people with old-fashioned thinking. After all, this was an era where “there are three forms of unfilial conduct, and having no descendants is the greatest.”
The Eldest Princess gritted her teeth, her tone heavy. “Huo Xian, I will give you two choices. First, marry a wife immediately after returning to the capital, and Mother will pretend nothing ever happened. Second…”
“I choose the second one.” Huo Xian didn’t wait for her to finish speaking.
The Eldest Princess was stunned, then her brows furrowed tightly. “I haven’t stated the second option yet.”
Huo Xian said with a calm expression, “I won’t choose the first one…”
Before his voice faded, a slap landed on his cheek without warning. The Eldest Princess glared at him with bloodshot eyes. “Huo Xian, tell me one more time, will you choose the first option or not? If you don’t choose it, from now on, you will no longer bear the surname Huo, and you will no longer be my son!”
The magnitude of her reaction somewhat exceeded Huo Xian’s expectations. He had originally thought the Eldest Princess should be a calm person in her bones, but now her attitude caught him somewhat off guard.
The two choices given by the Eldest Princess were very clear: parents or romantic love.
Huo Xian had never been someone ruled by love, nor had he ever thought that one day he would personally experience the dilemma of being caught between familial affection and romantic love.
A dilemma?
Huo Xian looked at the Eldest Princess and slowly said, “If I leave the Huo family, leave the Princess Manor, perhaps you and Father will be able to live a peaceful life.”
The Eldest Princess froze, a thought quickly flashing through her mind. Her expression wavering, she asked, “What do you mean by this?”
Huo Xian, however, didn’t speak again. Instead, he slowly kowtowed. “It is your child who is unfilial. You and Father must take care of your health. I will come back to see you in the future.” After saying this, he stood up and prepared to leave.
How could the Eldest Princess let him go? She quickly pulled him back, interrogating him almost in a questioning tone: “What did you mean when you said that if you leave the Huo family, your father and I will be able to live a peaceful life?”
What else could it mean? Huo Xian could only deduce from the currently available clues: Emperor Haoyuan, bewitched by someone unknown, no longer wanted to groom him to be Emperor, but worried that his past cultivation had given him ideas, so he wanted to completely obliterate those thoughts, thus directly cutting off his escape route. The Eldest Princess was Emperor Haoyuan’s blood sister, blood being thicker than water. Emperor Haoyuan was unwilling to act against her, so he could only point the spearhead at the “outsider,” Marquis Huo first. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have been sent on that certain-death mission of eradicating bandits in Liangzhou.
So the question arose: Who exactly had such great ability to bewitch Emperor Haoyuan?
“Huo Xian!” Huo Xian’s distraction drew the Eldest Princess’s dissatisfaction and… the worry and panic hidden in her eyes.
In fact, without Huo Xian explaining, the Eldest Princess could also guess. As early as when Emperor Haoyuan uttered the word “Qilin son,” the couple had worried endlessly. She had even entered the palace several times to advise Emperor Haoyuan to act impartially, urging him not to forget to praise his own sons when praising hers. However, after getting drunk once, Emperor Haoyuan revealed to her his desire for Huo Xian to change his surname to Xiao. Coupled with his attitude towards Huo Xian, the Eldest Princess and her husband grew even more uneasy.
The Emperor’s mind was unpredictable. But his sending Marquis Huo to eradicate bandits was clearly putting the intent to claim Marquis Huo’s life out in the open. The reason Emperor Haoyuan made this decision…
“Mother, actually, me marrying a male wife might not be a bad thing.” Huo Xian’s gaze was shallow and clear, his voice bewitching. “A male wife… cannot have children.”
Huo Yuan: “Achoo—”
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